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137. Synthetic Gas Factory, Curing Bubble-Boy Disease, Alzheimer’s Blood Test

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Contenuto fornito da Adam Buckingham. Tutti i contenuti dei podcast, inclusi episodi, grafica e descrizioni dei podcast, vengono caricati e forniti direttamente da Adam Buckingham o dal partner della piattaforma podcast. Se ritieni che qualcuno stia utilizzando la tua opera protetta da copyright senza la tua autorizzazione, puoi seguire la procedura descritta qui https://it.player.fm/legal.

Porsche’s synthetic gasoline factory comes online today in Chile | Ars Technica (01:07)

  • A Chilean startup called Highly Innovative Fuels officially opened its first synthetic gasoline production facility.
    • Result of a collaboration between the automaker Porsche, Siemens Energy, Exxon Mobil, Enel Green Power, the Chilean state energy company ENAP, and Empresas Gasco.
  • What is synthetic fuel or synfuel?
    • A feedstock is a raw material that is used as a source of energy or as a starting material for the production of a product.
    • A type of fuel that is made from synthetic hydrocarbons
    • Typically produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass through a process known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.
    • Synthetic fuel is a direct drop-in for pump gasoline
  • Initially, the site will produce around 34,000 gallons (130,000 L) a year,
    • Scaling up to 14.5 million gallons (55 million L) a year by 2024.
    • Plans to increase that tenfold to 145 million gallons (550 million L) a year by 2026.
  • The site, located in Punta Arenas in Southern Chile, will use wind to power the process
    • The area sees high winds roughly 270 days a year, and a wind turbine can expect to produce up to four times as much energy as one in Europe.
  • Conversion process of the plant:
    • The e-fuel plant will use wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen.
    • The hydrogen is then combined with carbon captured from the air or industrial sources to synthesize methanol.
    • The methanol in turn can then be converted into longer hydrocarbons to be used as fuel.
  • HIF has long-term plans to build out 12 synthetic fuel plants worldwide, including locations in the US and Australia, with a goal of each site capturing 2 million metric tons of CO2 per year.
    • Could be an incentive for CO2 capture!
  • It is NOT CHEAP
    • At current prices, it works out to around $8 per gallon ($2/L), although that obviously doesn't include any taxes or duties

NASA Discovers Pair of Super-Earths With 1,000-Mile-Deep Oceans | SciTechDaily (08:24)

  • Astronomers have uncovered a pair of planets that are water worlds unlike any planet found in our solar system.
    • Slightly larger than Earth, they don’t have the density of rock, but they are denser than gas giants in our solar system
  • What are they made of?
    • The best answer is that these exoplanets have global oceans at least 500 times deeper than the average depth of Earth’s oceans, which simply are a wet veneer on a rocky ball.
  • They orbit the red dwarf star Kepler-138, located 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
    • Called Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d
    • Planets were initially found in 2014 with NASA’s Kepler Space Observatory.
    • But with follow-up observations with the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes they found that the planets must be composed largely of water.
  • The discovery was made by a team of researchers at the University of Montreal lead by Caroline Piaulet.
    • By comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, the astronomers concluded that a significant fraction of their volume should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium.
    • Most common being water.
  • The closest size comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system (i.e. Europa, Enceladus) that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.
  • But don’t expect the water to be the same as the water you see here. According to Piaulet:
    • “The temperature in Kepler-138 d’s atmosphere is likely above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet. Only under that steam atmosphere there could potentially be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressures, called a supercritical fluid.”
    • A supercritical fluid is a substance that is in a state between a gas and a liquid and exhibits unique properties that are intermediate between the two phases. (Not a pressure to be solid)

Gene therapy cures kids with rare “bubble-boy” disease in new trial | New Atlas (12:18)

  • A rare genetic disease, called Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), renders children without a functioning immune system from birth has been effectively cured by an experimental gene therapy.
    • SCID is a collection of genetic diseases that result in impaired immune functions.
    • Informally known as the "bubble-boy" disease
  • The study is reporting on the first 10 children treated with the therapy, all of whom are now healthy and living normal lives.
  • The two most common forms of SCID – X-SCID and ADA-SCID – have been successfully treated with an experimental gene therapy.
    • The patient's bone marrow stem cells are harvested, modified with a healthy copy of the targeted gene, and then infused back into their bodies.
  • This form of gene therapy uses a modified virus to deliver its healthy gene payload.
    • Sometimes cancerous side effects.
    • Because those viruses can only enter a cell's nuclei when it's dividing they can potentially generate adverse side effects.
  • Many researchers have shifted to using modified lentiviruses as the optimal viral vector for gene therapies.
    • Enter the nuclei of non-dividing cells meaning they should be safer and more effective.
    • In 2021, a more long-term study tracking 50 children with ADA-SCID treated with lentiviral gene therapy found every subject was alive and healthy three years later.
  • The 10 children in this latest study were treated for ART-SCID, which is an extremely rare version of SCID and difficult to treat.
    • Over two years after the initial treatment all 10 children are reported as healthy and living normal lives.
  • Jennifer Puck, co-lead investigator on the study, discusses the results:
    • “All of the results are better than those previously seen with Artemis-SCID patients who received donor bone marrow transplants … Having patients in the trial achieve full T-cell immunity is outstanding. B-cell recovery takes longer, but so far it looks as if the patients also have a far better chance for B-cell reconstitution than they would with a regular bone marrow transplant. Successfully using less chemotherapy is also a big win, minimizing the harmful side effects of full dose busulfan in small infants.”
  • Larger studies are needed (as always), but the results are extraordinarily promising, pointing to a future where this genetic disease can be cured soon after birth.

Proof-of-concept drone flight delivers transplant lung to patient in Toronto | TechXplore (17:37)

  • A team of researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of using drones to carry human organs for transplantation to nearby locales.
    • A drone carried a human lung donated by a deceased patient at one hospital in downtown Toronto, Canada, to another patient needing a new lung waiting in another hospital, also in downtown Toronto.
  • This feasibility study was meant to test the use of drones for carrying donated organs on a regular basis.
    • Drone used was the Chinese-made M600 Pro
    • Added new electronics designed specifically for strong connectivity—the drone is steered on its path by a human pilot.
    • Added a parachute, lights, several cameras, GPS trackers and a recovery system.
    • Finally, they removed the landing gear and replaced it with a container box specifically designed to keep organs cool during transport.
  • They had the drone carry objects from point to point, testing all of its features.
    • After 400 such test flights, they deemed their drone ready
  • The proof-of-concept flight:
    • Took off from Toronto Western Hospital with the drone carrying a donated lung
    • Flew to Toronto General Hospital, just two kilometers away
    • The lung was delivered and safely implanted into the waiting patient.
  • The researchers suggest their approach can be used for short-distance transfers in densely populated areas, such as across a city, greatly reducing delivery time.
    • Ground vehicles can take a lot of time due to congestion and unforeseen tie-ups.

Blood test detects 'toxic' protein years before Alzheimer's symptoms emerge | ScienceDaily (22:55)

  • Seeds of Alzheimer's are planted years -- even decades – before the cognitive impairments surface that make a diagnosis possible.
    • Amyloid beta proteins that misfold and clump together, forming small aggregates called oligomers.
  • Those oligomers through a process scientists still do not understand become “toxic,” which then are thought of to cause Alzheimer's.
  • University of Washington researchers have developed a laboratory test that can measure levels of amyloid beta oligomers in blood samples.
    • Detected in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's disease
    • But did not detect them in most members of a control group who showed no signs of cognitive impairment
  • Their test, known by the acronym SOBA, did detect oligomers in the blood of 11 individuals from the control group.
    • 10 of these individuals had follow-up examinations where all were diagnosed years later with mild cognitive impairment or brain pathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
  • Senior author professor Valerie Daggett stated:
    • “What clinicians and researchers have wanted is a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease -- and not just an assay that confirms a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but one that can also detect signs of the disease before cognitive impairment happens. That's important for individuals' health and for all the research into how toxic oligomers of amyloid beta go on and cause the damage that they do … What we show here is that SOBA may be the basis of such a test."
  • In the study, the team also showed that SOBA easily could be modified to detect toxic oligomers of another type of protein associated with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
  • Dagget stating:
    • "We are finding that many human diseases are associated with the accumulation of toxic oligomers that form these alpha sheet structures … Not just Alzheimer's, but also Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes and more. SOBA is picking up that unique alpha sheet structure, so we hope that this method can help in diagnosing and studying many other 'protein misfolding' diseases."
  continue reading

100 episodi

Artwork
iconCondividi
 

Fetch error

Hmmm there seems to be a problem fetching this series right now. Last successful fetch was on November 20, 2023 22:05 (4M ago)

What now? This series will be checked again in the next hour. If you believe it should be working, please verify the publisher's feed link below is valid and includes actual episode links. You can contact support to request the feed be immediately fetched.

Manage episode 351306624 series 2832936
Contenuto fornito da Adam Buckingham. Tutti i contenuti dei podcast, inclusi episodi, grafica e descrizioni dei podcast, vengono caricati e forniti direttamente da Adam Buckingham o dal partner della piattaforma podcast. Se ritieni che qualcuno stia utilizzando la tua opera protetta da copyright senza la tua autorizzazione, puoi seguire la procedura descritta qui https://it.player.fm/legal.

Porsche’s synthetic gasoline factory comes online today in Chile | Ars Technica (01:07)

  • A Chilean startup called Highly Innovative Fuels officially opened its first synthetic gasoline production facility.
    • Result of a collaboration between the automaker Porsche, Siemens Energy, Exxon Mobil, Enel Green Power, the Chilean state energy company ENAP, and Empresas Gasco.
  • What is synthetic fuel or synfuel?
    • A feedstock is a raw material that is used as a source of energy or as a starting material for the production of a product.
    • A type of fuel that is made from synthetic hydrocarbons
    • Typically produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass through a process known as the Fischer-Tropsch process.
    • Synthetic fuel is a direct drop-in for pump gasoline
  • Initially, the site will produce around 34,000 gallons (130,000 L) a year,
    • Scaling up to 14.5 million gallons (55 million L) a year by 2024.
    • Plans to increase that tenfold to 145 million gallons (550 million L) a year by 2026.
  • The site, located in Punta Arenas in Southern Chile, will use wind to power the process
    • The area sees high winds roughly 270 days a year, and a wind turbine can expect to produce up to four times as much energy as one in Europe.
  • Conversion process of the plant:
    • The e-fuel plant will use wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen.
    • The hydrogen is then combined with carbon captured from the air or industrial sources to synthesize methanol.
    • The methanol in turn can then be converted into longer hydrocarbons to be used as fuel.
  • HIF has long-term plans to build out 12 synthetic fuel plants worldwide, including locations in the US and Australia, with a goal of each site capturing 2 million metric tons of CO2 per year.
    • Could be an incentive for CO2 capture!
  • It is NOT CHEAP
    • At current prices, it works out to around $8 per gallon ($2/L), although that obviously doesn't include any taxes or duties

NASA Discovers Pair of Super-Earths With 1,000-Mile-Deep Oceans | SciTechDaily (08:24)

  • Astronomers have uncovered a pair of planets that are water worlds unlike any planet found in our solar system.
    • Slightly larger than Earth, they don’t have the density of rock, but they are denser than gas giants in our solar system
  • What are they made of?
    • The best answer is that these exoplanets have global oceans at least 500 times deeper than the average depth of Earth’s oceans, which simply are a wet veneer on a rocky ball.
  • They orbit the red dwarf star Kepler-138, located 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
    • Called Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d
    • Planets were initially found in 2014 with NASA’s Kepler Space Observatory.
    • But with follow-up observations with the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes they found that the planets must be composed largely of water.
  • The discovery was made by a team of researchers at the University of Montreal lead by Caroline Piaulet.
    • By comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, the astronomers concluded that a significant fraction of their volume should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium.
    • Most common being water.
  • The closest size comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system (i.e. Europa, Enceladus) that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.
  • But don’t expect the water to be the same as the water you see here. According to Piaulet:
    • “The temperature in Kepler-138 d’s atmosphere is likely above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet. Only under that steam atmosphere there could potentially be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressures, called a supercritical fluid.”
    • A supercritical fluid is a substance that is in a state between a gas and a liquid and exhibits unique properties that are intermediate between the two phases. (Not a pressure to be solid)

Gene therapy cures kids with rare “bubble-boy” disease in new trial | New Atlas (12:18)

  • A rare genetic disease, called Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), renders children without a functioning immune system from birth has been effectively cured by an experimental gene therapy.
    • SCID is a collection of genetic diseases that result in impaired immune functions.
    • Informally known as the "bubble-boy" disease
  • The study is reporting on the first 10 children treated with the therapy, all of whom are now healthy and living normal lives.
  • The two most common forms of SCID – X-SCID and ADA-SCID – have been successfully treated with an experimental gene therapy.
    • The patient's bone marrow stem cells are harvested, modified with a healthy copy of the targeted gene, and then infused back into their bodies.
  • This form of gene therapy uses a modified virus to deliver its healthy gene payload.
    • Sometimes cancerous side effects.
    • Because those viruses can only enter a cell's nuclei when it's dividing they can potentially generate adverse side effects.
  • Many researchers have shifted to using modified lentiviruses as the optimal viral vector for gene therapies.
    • Enter the nuclei of non-dividing cells meaning they should be safer and more effective.
    • In 2021, a more long-term study tracking 50 children with ADA-SCID treated with lentiviral gene therapy found every subject was alive and healthy three years later.
  • The 10 children in this latest study were treated for ART-SCID, which is an extremely rare version of SCID and difficult to treat.
    • Over two years after the initial treatment all 10 children are reported as healthy and living normal lives.
  • Jennifer Puck, co-lead investigator on the study, discusses the results:
    • “All of the results are better than those previously seen with Artemis-SCID patients who received donor bone marrow transplants … Having patients in the trial achieve full T-cell immunity is outstanding. B-cell recovery takes longer, but so far it looks as if the patients also have a far better chance for B-cell reconstitution than they would with a regular bone marrow transplant. Successfully using less chemotherapy is also a big win, minimizing the harmful side effects of full dose busulfan in small infants.”
  • Larger studies are needed (as always), but the results are extraordinarily promising, pointing to a future where this genetic disease can be cured soon after birth.

Proof-of-concept drone flight delivers transplant lung to patient in Toronto | TechXplore (17:37)

  • A team of researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of using drones to carry human organs for transplantation to nearby locales.
    • A drone carried a human lung donated by a deceased patient at one hospital in downtown Toronto, Canada, to another patient needing a new lung waiting in another hospital, also in downtown Toronto.
  • This feasibility study was meant to test the use of drones for carrying donated organs on a regular basis.
    • Drone used was the Chinese-made M600 Pro
    • Added new electronics designed specifically for strong connectivity—the drone is steered on its path by a human pilot.
    • Added a parachute, lights, several cameras, GPS trackers and a recovery system.
    • Finally, they removed the landing gear and replaced it with a container box specifically designed to keep organs cool during transport.
  • They had the drone carry objects from point to point, testing all of its features.
    • After 400 such test flights, they deemed their drone ready
  • The proof-of-concept flight:
    • Took off from Toronto Western Hospital with the drone carrying a donated lung
    • Flew to Toronto General Hospital, just two kilometers away
    • The lung was delivered and safely implanted into the waiting patient.
  • The researchers suggest their approach can be used for short-distance transfers in densely populated areas, such as across a city, greatly reducing delivery time.
    • Ground vehicles can take a lot of time due to congestion and unforeseen tie-ups.

Blood test detects 'toxic' protein years before Alzheimer's symptoms emerge | ScienceDaily (22:55)

  • Seeds of Alzheimer's are planted years -- even decades – before the cognitive impairments surface that make a diagnosis possible.
    • Amyloid beta proteins that misfold and clump together, forming small aggregates called oligomers.
  • Those oligomers through a process scientists still do not understand become “toxic,” which then are thought of to cause Alzheimer's.
  • University of Washington researchers have developed a laboratory test that can measure levels of amyloid beta oligomers in blood samples.
    • Detected in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's disease
    • But did not detect them in most members of a control group who showed no signs of cognitive impairment
  • Their test, known by the acronym SOBA, did detect oligomers in the blood of 11 individuals from the control group.
    • 10 of these individuals had follow-up examinations where all were diagnosed years later with mild cognitive impairment or brain pathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
  • Senior author professor Valerie Daggett stated:
    • “What clinicians and researchers have wanted is a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease -- and not just an assay that confirms a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but one that can also detect signs of the disease before cognitive impairment happens. That's important for individuals' health and for all the research into how toxic oligomers of amyloid beta go on and cause the damage that they do … What we show here is that SOBA may be the basis of such a test."
  • In the study, the team also showed that SOBA easily could be modified to detect toxic oligomers of another type of protein associated with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
  • Dagget stating:
    • "We are finding that many human diseases are associated with the accumulation of toxic oligomers that form these alpha sheet structures … Not just Alzheimer's, but also Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes and more. SOBA is picking up that unique alpha sheet structure, so we hope that this method can help in diagnosing and studying many other 'protein misfolding' diseases."
  continue reading

100 episodi

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